Room for Improvement @ Lowe's.

It's been awhile since I've ranted (here on the blog anyway, I do it in real life all the time).

There are so many options for consumers in America that it can make choosing where to shop difficult. There are many factors at play, price, location, hours, product availability, etc. To me, Lowe's & Home Depot were pretty much interchangeable until I did some research last year trying to see if they offered military discounts. Lowe's offered them all of the time, Home Depot only offered them during veteran related holidays unless you are retired, which Jake is. So to us it didn't matter but I'd go to Lowe's because I liked that they support veterans all of the time. After today, I'm a Home Depot customer.

As I mentioned, there are so many shopping options available that businesses need to focus on customer service if they want to retain customers. It's been awhile since I've had a bad customer service experience so I suppose I was due. As you know, we're building a loft, it's new construction, we need to buy pretty much everything and today I went to pick up some light fixtures that had come in, get tile for the kitchen, and bulbs for the range hood. The tile I want in the kitchen has to be special ordered, so I found an associate to help me, it was his "quitting time" so he passed me off to another associate. The second guy couldn't find my tile in the computer (not his fault) so we found it in a book. He still couldn't find it in the computer with the additional information so he found the phone number for the tile company and said he'd call me on Monday with a price.  Umm...it was 2 pm, on a Friday, why not call the tile company right now? His excuse was that they're based in Texas and probably already closed. I'm sorry but how difficult would it have been for him to dial the 10 digits to see if they were still open? Companies that are selling millions of tiles probably have customer service support that sticks around after 5pm. Apparently being lazy was more important to him than helping a customer.

I was so angry after this because now I didn't know what to do about the tile. I need it for the kitchen, we're ready to lay it, I needed to make the decision and get it taken care of today. I don't want to wait until Monday, what if he called me and I thought the price was ridiculous, then I'd be out of luck. I drove nearly 2 hours in the rain to get to Lowe's and now they can't won't help me. I can't order the tile online because it's not on their website. So I decided to do what any logical person would do and I went across the street to Home Depot where they were more than happy to order any tile I wanted. The guy even sat there patiently while Jake and I hemmed and hawed over which color we wanted (they had a larger selection of colors to choose from than Lowe's). To top it off, we got our military discount on the special order and they'll call us in 10 days when it's ready to be picked up.

Lowe's, a word to the wise, when your competitor is literally across the road, don't piss off your customers to the point where they're shaking, because they won't be your customers anymore.

*I've been informed that Home Depot now offers military discounts year round to all military, not just retired.